Posted: May 28th, 2010 | Author: Julie Rutherford | Filed under: Events | Tags: NUI, pub, surface | No Comments »
On May 17th, we had a great turnout to our NUIs in your living room, in a pub event!
To spice things up, we asked those who attended the event to submit their recap of the event! Not only does this summarize the event for those who didn’t attend, but those who did attend can hear what the other end of the table was talking about!
Quote 1: In our conversations we talked about the user experience of a video store, a grocery store and independently owned/operated establishments and what they offer over big chain stores. We proposed that there is a certain niche for independent stores like this, and while some people may switch to this niche market if they knew of it, others just demand the convenience of the big chains.
Quote 2: Alas, we did not have an iPad to play with, but many of us have been able to play with one or know someone who has one. We heard about some of the technical specs and who was excited to get an iPad or Kindle and those who were happy with just their smartphones and laptops. It’s clear that NUIs (natural user interfaces) are becoming all the rage as these products become more mainstream, so we as usability professionals will definitely need to become more aware of ways that we can ensure the products we work on are suited for NUIs. Here’s an article that outlines some of the challenges NUIs cause for development and prototyping.
Quote 3: It was a low-key discussion about user experience in a very broad sense. Our talk touched on traditional software-based UX topics, but concentrated on the user experience in retail environments, with a focus on the differences between a globalized and a localized retail experience. Essentially, the ideas that we explored had to do with the different feelings associated with shopping at a local small business with a unique perspective and tightly focused set of offerings, versus shopping at a larger global chain with a wide variety of products, often at a lower price point. Overall, it was a great time, and I can’t wait for the next one!
Quote 4: The most striking conversational detour from me was around relationships that the best stores have with their customers. We talked about it in the content of independent video stores, music stores (of which there are fewer and fewer), and even grocery stores. I pointed out that I’ll often go to my favourite video store (Waterloo’s Generation X, as it turns out) and ask “What should I watch?” or “What should my wife and I watch?”, and have never been disappointed with the recommended film that I then rent. The personal, local relationship has become more meaningful in an age of online access to just about anything.
For anyone who had additional thoughts on our last event or has ideas about future events, feel free to add a comment!
Hope to see you at the Current Think Aloud Practices event on Thursday, June 24, 2010, where Amy Gill will be sharing information about her research and we’ll discuss think out loud sessions!
May 17, 2010 UX Group Event- NUIs in your living room, in a pub
Posted: March 23rd, 2010 | Author: Julie Rutherford | Filed under: Events | Tags: event, games, ixda, microsoft surface, surface, tabletop | No Comments »
In last Thursday’s March UX Group meeting, Dr. Stacey Scott spoke to us about the exciting projects that she and her team are working on with tabletop interfaces. She brought us through the history of tabletop interfaces and showed us that there has been a large amount of work that brought us from the earliest prototypes, to what we’ve seen with more mainstream products like Microsoft Surface and the SMART Table.
Imagine playing Risk, but on a tabletop interface!
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This video shows some the amazing projects that Dr. Scott and her team in the Collaborative Systems Laboratory at the University of Waterloo have been working on. They are focussing on applications for tabletop interfaces in two main areas: 1) military command and control operations and 2) digital board gaming. One day, the army or navy might be using these systems and we might be able to enjoy digitalized versions of strategy board games (like Risk and Pax Romana) on our own kitchen tables!
Want to build your own tabletop interface?
Well, if you can’t wait and want to try building your own interactive tabletop, you’re in luck! Contact Professor Michael Haller’s Media Interaction Lab in Austria, from which you can order the same kit that Dr. Scott’s team uses for their work. Order the special grid paper and pens, install a projector, set it all up on any table that you have lying around and voila… you’ll be able to tinker with your own tabletop interface! If you have any luck, you can enter in the SMART Multitouch Application Contest and compete against other developers who are working on surface applications.
Join the new IxDA Waterloo site!
In other news, we have a new IxDA Waterloo site! Check out the link to see more information, learn about other IxDA events, and gain access to more resources about design and user experience. While there, we encourage you to join IxDA (it’s free) and indicate your membership with IxDA Waterloo. We’re currently looking into ways to combine our current UX group blog with this new IxDA site.
Send us your ideas for future events
The UX group planning commitete brainstormed after last Thursday’s event and we came up with some great ideas for future events. We plan to continue the tradition of “UX drinks” after our monthly events, so we can get together to chat in a more social atmosphere. If you have any thoughts or ideas, please leave a comment. We’d love to hear from you!
Posted: September 15th, 2008 | Author: Robert Barlow-Busch | Filed under: Events | Tags: ixda, microsoft office, microsoft ribbon, microsoft surface, surface, user experience, ux | No Comments »
We’re kicking off the 2008 UX season with a bang! Join us on September 30 for an event co-hosted with the Infusion Angels — where you’ll not only hear first-hand about Microsoft’s redesign of Office, but will get several chances to win over $3000 in prizes. Seating is limited so be sure to RSVP soon.
Tuesday September 30, 2008
4:30 to 7:30 pm
Accelerator Centre
Main foyer
295 Hagey Blvd., Waterloo
[Map]
Event description
Poster for the Innovation in Action event
Get inspired by two case studies of innovation in action:
- First we’ll hear from Jensen Harris about the thinking and design process behind Microsoft’s new Ribbon user interface, introduced in Office 2007. Jensen is Group Program Manager of the Office UX Team and was a key designer of the Ribbon, so he’s able to speak from personal experience about what it was like to design something that’s now used by millions of people.
- Next, the creative design team at Infusion Development takes the stage to talk about their work with Microsoft Surface, the interactive table that ushered in a new wave of commercial development in multi-touch (or NUI) devices. They will present demos of Surface applications they’ve built for clients in hospitality, retail, and government, discussing their designs and the challenges in building usable interfaces for this relatively new technology.
RSVPs required
Given the cool topics, the free food, and the great prizes, we’re likely to have a full house at the Accelerator Centre. Please RSVP if you plan to attend. To RSVP, send an email to Kayla Spiess at Infusion Angels.